Sara Goldfarb’s fix: television

by devveb

People who swoon over televisual utopia are programmed to believe that their life is validated through active consumerism and meeting fallacious ideas. Sara Goldfarb portrays its catastrophe.

In the early scenes of Requiem for a Dream, Sara Goldfarb spends her days in loneliness, food, and TV. Life seems to go on in this plain routine until she receives a call notifying her that she won in a game show and that she will soon appear on television. Sara couldn’t be more ecstatic. A pretty red dress in her closet makes her nostalgic about an event of elation. She foresees the dress perfectly suiting the TV appearance, but it won’t zip anymore. This convinces her to shed some pounds. She tried to stick to a meal plan that promises fast weight loss. But because of the lack of distractions and responsibilities in her daily life, the thoughts of devouring food bombards her. She quits the impossible diet and goes to see a “doctor”. Pills that induce restlessness and suppress the appetite are handed to her. Their impressive effect on her mood and rapid weight loss begets her to take more than what’s been prescribed.

Sara Goldfarb is already addicted, and on the verge of psychosis when she realizes that she’s been high on the dangerous- Amphetamine.

The media installs in our subconscious that we have to look a certain way in order to be happy. Advertisements feed our eyes with material things that give a false sense of hope.

Should we blame Sara Goldfarb for her tragedy? Is it her fault that she believed?

With no sense of purpose left in her life, other than to be admired, she’s unarmed against the seduction of TV and its false teachings.

Sara Goldfarb is just another victim of a scam that promises a happy ending.